Arsenal earned a 2-1 win over Tottenham this evening to boost their chances of ending the campaign in a European place.
The Gunners were the better side and frustrated Jose Mourinho’s top stars so much that Erik Lamela earned a red card for his troubles.
This win helps the Gunners to close the gap between them and their visitors and it was achieved because several of their top players were in form. Here is our Arsenal player ratings:
Bernd Leno – 6
Nothing he could do about the goal and he was hardly tested by a very defensive Spurs.
Cedric Soares – 7
He was in fine form and almost scored a goal. If he continues this way, we won’t miss Hector Bellerin when he leaves.
Kieran Tierney – 8
Tierney’s importance to this team cannot be understated. He combined well with Smith Rowe to cause problems down the left and provided the assist for Odegaard’s goal.
Gabriel Magalhaes – 7
He was in solid form yet again, just as in the Europa League and saved a certain goal with a block in the second half.
David Luiz – 7
Another solid performance from the Brazilian who rose to the occasion of defending against Harry Kane.
Granit Xhaka – 7
You always had your heart in your mouth while watching him, but he was a star in this game and thwarted everything that Spurs attempted to create.
Thomas Partey – 7
Strong on the tackle and made Ndombele anonymous for much of the game. He needs to learn how to shoot better.
Martin Odegaard – 8
Fearless performance from the Norwegian whose quick change of feet makes it hard to get the ball off him. Fine goal to bring Arsenal back in the game.
Bukayo Saka – 6
Anonymous first half and forced Mikel Arteta to replace him at the interval.
Emile Smith Rowe – 8
He silenced everyone who would have questioned the decision to play him on the left. Combined well with Tierney to unsettle Doherty every time and wasn’t afraid to have a pop at goal.
Alexandre Lacazette – 7
Stepped up to take the penalty for the winning goal, but he was guilty of missing some chances.
Substitutes
Nicolas Pepe – 6
Played the ball that forced Tottenham to concede the penalty and that shows that he is still on form.
Willian – 6
Helped to keep Arsenal’s lead when he came on.
Mohamed Elneny – N/A
Emile Smith Rowe’s game by numbers vs. Tottenham:
97% pass accuracy
57 touches
6 ball recoveries
4 chances created
3 crosses
1 shot
1 foul won
1 tackle
1 interception
1 woodwork hit
Impressive!! Love him!!
Love him too Sue! Great to see so talented youngsters coming through the academy, the futire is looking bright 😄 man of the match was between Øde and Smith-Rowe for me, giving it to Øde for that important goal.
Both were brilliant, Kent! I’m loving seeing them both in the side.
Not a bad game to get your first league goal in, hey?! 👏
Not at all, and in the NLD as well, makes it even sweeter 😂
I agree that’s something we’ve been missing playing 2 “creative”midfielders not only do we create more chances but it allows us to have more possession as for him being played on the side Wenger used to do it with Santi Ozil and the likes he explained that it helps them to hone their skills close ball control decisions making.. and once they’re moved in the center they find it much easier…
The future is certainly bright for our coydron De Bruyne hope he racks up assists in the next El second leg match and a goal for Saka too will be good.
Finish the week off in style, Dhoni 😎
All hail the Hale Enders!!
Hopefully Saka will be fit for Thursday as he was subbed due to injury..
Sue, Saka is starting to show the results of the cynical cyclical fouling he suffers in every match now. Opposition teams see his threat and are trying to kick him off the park.
The lack of protection he gets from officials is disgusting, so it was good that Arteta gave him a break.
Valid point Ozzie. Probably Arsenal need to start making some noise about this in media. This will be back of the head of any referee when ever Arsenal play. They will be less lenient next time. We need to play some mind games like fergi used to do.
Ozzie, I hope you notice every team field 2 goalie on the bench for Europa? I think that’s why MA field 2 goalkeeper as well
Spot on, Ozzie. The opposition are all over him as he’s the one that makes things happen.
Hoping he’ll have recovered for Thursday, as he was feeling his hamstring.
Yeah hope he is fit for Thursdays game.
Me too!
Six ball recoveries is impressive for an LW. He always works his socks off for the team
DO we have starts on Pepe’s ball recoveries.
I think he should be couched in this main area he lacks badly.
Very impressive Sue!
Also Ödegaard’s game in numbers:
96,6 % pass accuracy
75 touches
58 passes
3 long balls, 3 accurate long balls
2 key passes
2 shots, 1 on target
1 goal
1 aerial won
3 tackles
1 interception
Wish Real would be stupid enough to sell him to us..
Equally as impressive, McLovin!!
We live in hope hey?!!
Yes! If Real is known for something, it’s being not_very_intelligent on the transfer market (Hazard, Hakimi, Jovic, Hernandez)
Fingers crossed!!
Great game, Ødegaard man of the match, Im proud that he’s from my country! Great win over the moaning one!
Willian…..N/A. He did nothing because when he came in the pace of the game and ball retention disappeared. In fact Tottenham started attacking us.
Correct. all of a sudden we became weaker and on our back foot with the substitutions especially Willian and Pepe.
The two may be good when we are in possession but very poor when the opposition is in possession.
Cedric 8
Partey 6
Agree with other ratings.
Apart from scoring the penalty Lacazette was appalling and certainly doesn’t merit a 7 out of 10.
Willian’s introduction completely messed up Arsenal’s fluidity and it really didn’t make any sense to take off a player who was having such a great game…On this occasion Arteta struck lucky with the end result but it could have been very different as the result of poor game management.
so true. we need a better player than willian. at Chelsea he was a complete game manager. he would kill the time out of game and make it better for chelsea. we bought a player that have seen better days. I personally at the start thought he was a great buy, but he is a millions miles from the player that was at Chelsea. oh well you win some,you lose some.
If a manager introduce a certain player in that changes the game play in a negative way but not in a positive way.
That tells u alot about this player impact.
Next season Willian should be sold even though he has a few assists to his credit.
He’s definitely not the player we can see from Chelsea. Not even like 50% of his capability.
He should do well elsewhere but not in Arsenal.
Yeah shine, one thing I don’t understand instead of benching him for good because if his failure this season Arteta seems to provide him with more playing time. Keeping Willian is not a sign of a team who wants to progress and go in new direction. Our youth is stepping up and we have way better youngsters then out dated players like Willian.
willian was not the reason we had a nervy end to that game. it was a psychological awareness of the players. did you see Partey and Gabriel having misplaced passes, giving away unnecessary fouls at dangerous areas? was that William fault?
it’s bad enough you don’t like a player, you don’t need to make it too glaring by blaming him for others mistakes, just like a certain articles blamed Xhaka for Cebalos mistake. it’s ridiculous
Bless you. It is terrible commentary to blame Willian for obvious psychology breakdown. The team was shaky. I wonder how some fans are still pointing fingers at him.
Ada, Before a goal always check the genesis of the problem, Before a player is forced to commit a foul check what resulted in the need to commit such.
This way you will be able to analyse games.
Fouls are mostly committed to avert danger that would have originated from previous play or lack of it.
ESR MOTM
Closely followed by Both CBS absolutely brilliant ,Luiz was a beast tonight ,read yesterday he was past his sell by date ,absolute nonsense,Keep that back line in check once again,not sure what some fans watch TBH when they see us play ,take the blinkers off next time .
Thought Pepe did well also coming on ,cannot be easy being a bit part player .
As much as I love Leno ,he looked abit shaky tonight ,probably because off his teammates mistakes the last few matches .
he was but fans will forget about this game that he played well
👍 👍
Luis does that, I remember him silencing Geroud and even Caroll by nipping them in the back slightly (little sin) as they jump.
But he can then be foul prone the next game.
I say we play him in teams with slow big center backs.
Teams like city are however problematic for him as he lacks pace and they do not really play high balls.
sorry Slow big centre forward* I mean
the game tonight has shown why we need world class and experience managers
mourinho and ancelloti have both won trophies with tottenham and everton
#thefansknowbest
Hey you still here?? Such a legend you are hahahaha
He is so droll
You should’ve seen him few years ago when he went by name “Hafiz Rahmann”.
Nowadays, he’s being sarcastic and ironic with his comments but few years ago he actually meant what he is saying. Always first to cry for huge transfers lol.
The ratings were mostly on the money today, credit it where it’s deserved. Lacazette won and converted s penalty but would have been the bogey man had Arsenal lost, both for his missed chances and rarely being in the right place to take advantage of those delicious crosses coming from the left. Outside of that Partey needs to do better, while Pepe and William were both ineffective.
I think it was the immediate substitutions after the Spurs’ red card that destabilized Arsenal. They should have been allowed to play on a little more with the momentum before introduction of substitutes.
Anyway, … happy we got the important 3 points from the SULKING ONE.
COYG
Any questions on whether odergard and Smith Rowe can play together were answered today. Great performance and energy from both of the them.
Yup!
Those two are wonderful people.
The advantage of Laca over Auba is that when Auba is not scoring, he’s almost always useless for the team, but Laca keeps working hard.
No need to beat around the bush…
ESR best player on the pitch by a country mile.
Saka worst player on the pitch.
First time in a long while that referee’s decisions went our way.
Many players still guilty of giving the ball away cheaply; Partey, Xhaka, Gabriel. Need to improve on their passing in training especially quick passing.
I wonder if Mourinho will start looking below from now on.
Anyway it was a good match. Saka had a bad game and Arteta did the right thing subbing him and protecting him. ESR is very impressive, I must say. Him, sala and odegaard make such an unpredictable, direct and very technical attack.
Always said it, ESR doesn’t have to play through the middle to be effective – it might be his best position but he’s too sharp and energetic to be so limited.
From actually what i saw without bias to any player:
Leno 5
Luiz 8
Gabriel 9
Soares 7
Tierney 7
Partey 7
Xhaka 8
Odegaard 9
ESR 8
Saka 6
Laccazete 6
Pepe 7
Willian 2
Elneny 5
Smith Rowe was great. Cedric was good too. Not too sure what would warrant Bellerin being the unquestioned No 1. RB in the squad honestly. Cedric is more than up for the challenge.
ESR was top draw, as was Ode and Tierney. I think Cedric has better control and discipline than Hector Bellerin. What with Gabriel, Saka so good and in the background Martinelli waiting to pounce on a place, we have an amazing young core. But we still need to fill the gaps around them to reach our possibilities.
Mourinho’s tactics were stupid…..his methods went out the window years ago.
Great win, solid all round performance from players and manager. Now all we want to see is consistency and a strong run until the end of the season.
Hopefully Odegaard will want to stay at Arsenal and Real Madrid needs money, so will sell.
I fear Odegaard will go back to Real. Both Kroos and Modric are in the twilight of their brilliant careers. And Zidane and co. Would’ve taken note of his recent performance.
Armad, it depends on who else Real Madrid want to buy to strengthen their squad. They may be well off with midfielders, given Arsenal have 2 on loan, and may need to sell to generate sufficient funds for other positions.
Awesome job. We overcome the doubt. Thank you for the sweet dream.
Strong team performance all round though lacazette offered little threat upfront other than winning the penalty that wasn’t … I thought partey was as good as anyone yday calm and collected great vision and some really sweet passes to both wings … dominated the middle of the park and real quality … the last 15 minutes were a warning though of how easily the team can be unbalanced
I don’t want to be negative after such a fine performance from the whole team and I agree with your ratings but if Kane’s header was allowed and not offside we would have been moaning about another glaring mistake by Xhaka,just a point,I actually think he and Partey were absolutely brilliant in breaking up any sort of attack spurs tried to create and ESR and KT were immense as were Luiz and Gabriel and I hope and prey we see more of this in the remaining games to come,Tactics wise Arteta had it spot on and moanrinho got everything he deserved,he got it all wrong, I cannot work out what his tactics were really they were totally defensive almost as if they had come for a draw.
Cedric should be our regular RB
No. The competition is good for them both.
Saka did not have a good game, but then neither did their left back who is one of their main threats attacking wise.Apart from lacking pace, Odegaard is a very fine footballer who works like a trojan.We deserved to win and played well until the final 15 mins when panic set in with Partey and Xhaka giving away silly fouls .These two really should know better, but, hey , a good win which adds to our momentum.ESR and Tierney linked together like a gold chain.Well done boys, and our elder statesman who had one of his best games for Arsenal and showed real leadership when those around him were floundering towards the end of the match.
Marvelous performance from ESR, he should have scored the early goal if not because of the bar.
future gunners